How Many Rounds Is Ufc

Round Time loss. Conor McGregor Dustin Poirier 0 1 29 48 0. UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs Sonnen Aug. 17, 2013 U-DEC 3 5:00. It’s such a simple question, like quarters in football or periods in hockey: How many rounds are in an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight? The answer is harder to answer: It depends on what type of fight and when. While the UFC specifically and mixed martial arts in general are growing year over year in participation, Pay-per-View buys, and ESPN livestreams, along with that growth has come. Standard UFC bouts have a limit of three rounds (championship bouts have a limit of five), with five minutes to a round. Fighters get a one-minute break between rounds.

This post is all about UFC weight classes, or UFC weight divisions as they are often called. These are the most commonly used MMA weight classes today.

Mens UFC Weight Classes Chart:

Women's UFC Weight Classes Chart:

The History of UFC Weight Classes

UFC weight classes were introduced into the organization at UFC 12, For the first time two weight divisions were formed to split competitors into 200 lbs and above and below 200 lbs. These were called Heavyweight and Lightweight respectively. Prior to this, all UFC’s were open weight events with athletes of all different sizes and weights competing in one division.
The most extreme example of this open weight format was seen at UFC 3, when 200 lb. fighter Keith Hackney squared off against 600 lb. and 6′ 8″ Emmanuel Yarbrough.

BJ Penn was a two division UFC champ

Weight classes in the UFC and MMA were finalized in the year 2001. This is when the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board voted to agree on what later became known as the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. These unified rules specified 11 MMA weight classes that have become the standard for athletic commissions across North America.

​The most recent development in the UFC weight classes is the addition of the Women’s 145 lb weight division. This was announced by Dana White in Dec 2016

All UFC Weight Classes in order (Light to Heavy):

All the UFC weight classes listed in order from lightest to heaviest.

How Many Rounds Is Ufc Fight

Mens UFC weight classes: Flyweight, Bantamweight, Featherweight, Lightweight, Welterweight, Middleweight, Light Heavyweight, Heavyweight

Women’s UFC weight classes: Strawweight, Flyweight, Bantamweight, Featherweight

Mens UFC Weight Classes Ranges:

UFC Flyweight Division -125 lbs.

The UFC flyweight division is 125 lbs and under. This is currently the lightest men's weight class in the UFC.

The current UFC flyweight champion is Demetrious Johnson. He is widely considered the best pound for pound fighter in the history of the UFC. He currently holds a 12 fight win streak and has defended his title 9 times. ​

How Many Rounds Is Ufc

UFC Bantamweight Division 135 lbs.

The UFC bantamweight division range is 135 lbs and under. The current UFC Bantamweight champ is Cody Garbrandt.

Garbrandt won the UFC bantamweight belt when he defeated Dominic Cruz at UFC 207 by unanimous decision.

It looks likely that Garbrandt’s first title defense will be against former champion and former team mate T.J Dillashaw. It was recently announced that Dillashaw and Garbrandt would coach opposite each other on the latest series of The Ultimate Fighter.

UFC Featherweight Division 145 lbs.

The UFC featherweight division range is 145lbs and under. The current UFC featherweight champ is Max Holloway. He won the title with a 3rd round stoppage of Jose Aldo at UFC 212 on 3rd June 2017.

The UFC 145 lb. championship has been unpredictable lately with the title changing hands three times. Previously held by pound for pound great Jose Aldo since the weight division started in the UFC, it was then taken in stunning fashion by Conor McGregor when he knocked out Aldo in 13 secs flat back in December 2015. McGregor then promptly vacated the title and it was re-captured by Aldo in July 2016 when he beat Frankie Edgar. Aldo was unsuccessful in defending the title during this second run however, losing the belt in his first defence to Max Holloway.

UFC Lightweight Division 155 lbs.

The UFC lightweight division range is 155 lbs and under. The 155 lb. division is commonly regarded as one of the most competitive weight classes in the UFC today.

The current UFC lightweight champ is also Conor McGregor. He won the title by beating Eddie Alvarez via 2nd round TKO at UFC 205 on 12th November at Madison Square Garden New York. In doing so, McGregor became the first and only UFC fighter in history to hold two titles simultaneously.

A famous former lightweight champion was BJ Penn. Penn had previously captured the UFC welterweight belt before he came back to the UFC as a lightweight. He managed to defend the title three times before losing it to Eddie Alvarez team mate Frankie Edgar.

UFC Welterweight Division 170 lbs.

The UFC welterweight division range is 170lbs and under. The current UFC welterweight champ is Tyrone Woodley. Woodley’s most recent title defense was against Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson at UFC 205. Unusually, this fight was ruled a ‘majority draw” with Woodley retaining the title.

Woodley won the UFC welterweight title after beating Robbie Lawler by KO in the first round. His next title defense has not been announced yet but looks likely to be a rematch with Thompson.

This division was made famous by its previous champion George Saint Pierre or GSP as he’s commonly referred to. GSP vacated the title after a close split decision win over Johnny Hendricks at UFC 167, St Pierre vs Hendricks back in November 2013. He has not fought in the UFC since then.

UFC Middleweight Division 185 lbs.

The UFC middleweight division range is 185lbs and under. The current UFC middleweight champ is Michael Bisping.

Bisping won the title after knocking out Luke Rockhold in the first round. This was considered by many as one of the biggest UFC upsets of 2016 so far.

At UFC 204 Bisping succeeded in his first title defense, beating Dan Henderson by decision. In doing so he set a new record for the most wins in UFC history at 20 wins. This surpasses the old record of 19 wins previously held by George St Pierre. He also avenged his most devastating career loss after being knocked out by Henderson in brutal fashion during their previous bout.

The UFC middleweight division is home to the legendary fighter Anderson Silva who held the title for a record 10 title defenses. He remains at the top of many all time UFC pound for pound rankings lists.

UFC Light Heavyweight Division 205 lbs.

The UFC light heavyweight division range is 205 lbs and under. The current UFC light heavyweight champ is Daniel Cormier.

Cormier is an ex-olympic wrestler in freestyle wrestling. He is also a commentator and panelist for the UFC. Cormiers only loss in the UFC is to ex-light heavyweight champ Jon Jones. Other notable fighters in this division include Alexander Gustafsson and Jimi Manuwa.

UFC Heavyweight Division 205 – 265 lbs.

The UFC heavyweight division range is for fighters over 205lbs and under 265 lbs. The current UFC heavyweight champ is Stipe Miocic. The UFC Heavyweight title is seen as something of a ‘hot potato’ with no champion managing to defend the belt more than twice.

The UFC heavy weight division upper limit of 265 lbs is the heaviest any fighter can weigh whilst competing in the UFC. Some fighters are so heavy they actually still have to cut weight to get down to this weight. Examples include Brock Lesnar, Mark Hunt and Antonio bigfoot Silva.

The tallest fighter in the UFC is heavyweight fighter Stefan Struve at 7′ tall. This is a massive 9 inches taller than the average heavyweight.

Women’s UFC Weight Classes Ranges:

To date there are only three women’s UFC weight classes. They were first introduced on February 23rd 2013 at UFC 157 when Ronda Rousey fought Liz Carmouche in her first defence of the womens UFC bantamweight title.

The Women’s strawweight division was later introduced into the UFC on December 12th 2014. The first strawweight bout took place on this day on the prelims of the Ultimate Fighter 20 finale. The main event crowned the first women’s strawweight champion, Carla Esparza, when she defeated Rose Namajunas to win the belt.

Women’s UFC Strawweight Division -115 lbs.

The women’s UFC Strawweight division is 115 lbs and under. The current women’s UFC Strawweight champion is Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

Joanna won the title when she knocked out former and first ever women’s strawweight champ Carla Esparza in the second round at UFC 185 back in March 2015. She has proved to be a relatively active / dominant champ since then, defending the belt four times, most recently against Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC 205.

Women’s UFC Flyweight Division -125 lbs.

The UFC Women's Flyweight division is the latest weight class to be added to the UFC roster. There is currently no champion at this weight. A new champ will be crowned at the finale of TUF season 26 later this year.

Women’s UFC Bantamweight Division 135 lbs.

The women’s UFC Bantamweight division is 135 lbs and under. The current UFC women’s Bantamweight champ is Amanda Nunes.

This division was made famous by former champion Ronda Rousey. She was the most dominant women’s champion in UFC history before losing her belt in one of the organisations biggest ever upsets to Holly Holm. Holm then lost the title in another big UFC upset to Meisha Tate. Tate then lost the belt in her first title defense to current champ Amanda Nunes.

Women’s UFC Featherweight Division 145 lbs.

The women’s UFC Featherweight division is 145 lbs and under. On December the 13th 2016 the UFC announced the first fight in this new weight class.

The current UFC women's 145 lb champ is Germaine De Randamie. She won the title at UFC 208 Brooklyn on Feb 11th 2017, beating Holly Holme for the strap. In doing so, De Randamie became the first ever champion in this most recently added UFC weight class. The fight was deemed somewhat controversial as De Randamie was twice warned for strikes landed after the bell.

UFC Weight Classes Champions: Longest title holders

This info-graphic shows the longest UFC belt holders title reign to date at each UFC weight division.
To date, the weight classes at either end of the scale (lightweight and heavyweight) are by far the hardest divisions to hold the title for any length of time.

The middleweight division currently holds the record for having the longest UFC title holder in history with Anderson Silva defending his belt ten times.

Flyweight champ Demetrious “mighty mouse” Johnson is currently the most likely challenger to this record with eight defences and still holding the belt.

All the other divisions belts have changed hands relatively recently. Jon Jones almost certainly could have challenged for the record if not for his recent troubles which resulted in him being stripped of his Light Heavyweight Championship .

UFC Weight Classes in kg

For all (most) of our non US based readership you’re probably wondering what are the UFC weight classes in kg? See our handy reference below that gives the metric equivalent of each weight class:

UFC Flyweight Division 125 lbs. = 57kgs

UFC Bantamweight Division 135 lbs. = 61kgs

UFC Featherweight Division 145 lbs. = 66kgs

UFC Lightweight Division 155 lbs. = 70kgs

UFC Welterweight Division 170 lbs. = 77kgs

UFC Middleweight Division 185 lbs. = 84kgs

UFC Light Heavyweight Division 205 lbs. = 93kgs

UFC Heavyweight Division 205 – 265 lbs. = 120kgs (upper limit)

vs. Boxing Weight Classes

The UFC has far fewer weight classes that the equivalent boxing organisations out there. You can see our direct comparison chart here, to see which boxing weight class a UFC fighter would compete in.

UFC Weigh in Rules

For non-championship fights an athlete may miss the fight weight by up to one pound. For UFC title fights, the weight limit must be met. Although not an official rule, often times if one fighter fails to make weight, a catch weight UFC fight is sanctioned. This allows the bout still to take place.

​The UFC has fined fighters a percentage of their fight purse in the past for missing weight. The California State Athletic Commission has recently proposed additional fines of 20% of a fighters win bonus, should they miss weight and then go on to win the bout.

More recently, certain athletic commissions across the states have adopted new weigh in rules. The most notable difference being a longer weigh in period for the fighters. It remains to be seen whether these rules will become the norm going forward for future UFC events.

Ufc Live Round By Round

Betting on MMA fights has grown into a massive industry that stretches across the entire world. Top MMA promotions including the UFC have a large audience in countries all over the world.

Online bookmakers allow bettors to place wagers on MMA fights easily, but before you start betting on MMA, you need to learn the different types of MMA bets. Everyone knows that they can bet on who they think is going to win a fight, but there are lots of other ways to bet on MMA, which we’ll explain below.

Moneyline Bet / Match Bet

• Fighter A -300 vs. Fighter B +200

A moneyline bet or match bet is when you select one fighter to win a fight by whatever means necessary. It doesn’t matter how the fighter wins the fight as long as they end up winning.

This is the most popular bet in MMA, as everyone has a prediction as to who should win all of the big MMA fights. Make sure you read over our MMA odds guide if you don’t know how to read the odds listed in our moneyline bet example above.

Parlay Bet / Accumulator Bet / Multiplier Bet

Depending on where you live a parlay, accumulator or multiplier is a wager with multiple sections. For the sake of this article, I will refer to this bet as a parlay.

For instance, if you think three fighters will win you could bet on all three with a parlay bet to increase the payout odds. The only way you’ll win the parlay is if you end up winning all of the selections you make on the bet.

Even if just one of the fight’s lost the parlay will be a loser, and you won’t win anything. Parlays are great when betting on a couple of favorites since the odds are increased but so is the risk.

Open Parlay

An open parlay is when you decide to make a bet, and you use the option to leave spots open. You don’t have to select them right away but the number of spots you leave open need to be filled before the bet is complete.

These are fun if you want to bet on many fights or events, but you’re not sure on your selections yet. 5 Dimes offer this option, and you can have up to 25 open spots.

How Many Rounds Is Ufc Main Event

Over/Under Bet

• Fighter A vs. Fighter B – Over 2.5 Round -115 / Under 2.5 Rounds +105

One of the easiest ways to bet on an MMA fight is by betting the over/under. In an over/under bet the bookie will post a round total, and you need to bet on whether the fight will last longer or shorter than the round total.

Over under odds are posted to the bookies desecration. But they are fairly standard across the board.

Here are some examples of the Over Under listings.

• Over Under 1.5 Rounds – Usually found when two aggressive fighters fight.

To win the over bet, the bout must pass 2.5mins of the second round.
To win the under the fight needs to end before 2.5mins of round two.

• Over Under 2.5 Rounds – This is what you will see offered the most.

To win the over bet, the bout must pass 2.5mins of the third round.
To win the under the fight needs to end before 2.5mins of round three.

• Over Under 3.5 rounds – You will see the option in most championship fights, fights that have five rounds.

To win the over bet, the bout must pass 2.5mins of the fourth round.
To win the under the fight needs to end before 2.5mins of round four.

Round Betting

Several MMA sportsbooks allow bettors to bet on what round they think the fight will finish in, and the payout odds are much better when betting this way.

You can also bet on a fighter to win the fight during a certain round as well, which is another great MMA bet with excellent payout odds.

Method of Victory

There are three ways to win a fight in MMA including KO, Submission, and Points. If you think you know how a fight is going to end and want to make some money, you can bet on the method of victory at several bookmakers.

Variations of this bet are available.

Inside the Distance: A fighter wins by KO or Submission. He finishes the fight one way or another, i.e. Inside the Distance.

The fight ends by Submission: One fighter wins by submission. It does not matter who, it just needs to end by submission.

The fight ends by KO: One fighter wins by knockout or TKO. It does not matter who, just one person has to stop the other using strikes.

Handicap Betting

One of the lesser known bets and one of my personal favorites is the handicap bet. It’s where the book offers odds giving a fighter a (+) or (-) points amount before the fight.

The odds with this bet are lower than the odds for a moneyline bet, but used smartly and in Parlays can be profitable.

Examples of Handicap Bets

3 Round fight, fighter A is the favorite.

• Fighter A -3.5
• Fighter B +3.5

If either fighter wins by KO, TKO, or DQ, that fighter wins the handicap regardless of the scoring at the time of the stoppage.

The fight completes all scheduled rounds, and the judges score the fight.

• Scores of Fighter A 30-27, Fighter A 29-28, Fighter A 29-28

Fighter A wins a unanimous decision based on these scores.

• The cumulative score for Fighter A is 30+29+29 = 88
• The cumulative score for Fighter B is 27+28+28 = 83

So now we use the handicap scores to get our result.

• Fighter A has a total of 88 – 3.5 = 84.5
• Fighter B has a total of 83 + 3.5 = 86.5

Despite losing the fight, Fighter B would win the handicap bet based on this outcome.

Let’s do a five round fight, and again Fighter A is the favorite.

• Fighter A -5.5
• Fighter B +5.5

Scores of Fighter A 50-45, Fighter A 50-45, Fighter A 48-47.

Fighter A wins a unanimous decision based on these scores, and one judge did give Fighter B one round.

• The cumulative score for Fighter A is 50+50+49 = 148
• The cumulative score for Fighter B is 45+45+46 = 136

So now we use the handicap scores to get our result.

• Fighter A has a total of 149 – 5.5 = 143.5
• Fighter B has a total of 136 + 5.5 = 141.5

Fighter A would win the handicap bet on this fight. This bet is excellent, and you can use it if you think a guy has a great chance to win the fight, but the moneyline odds are not too appealing. The odds will be slightly higher. You can also use these bets in Parlays. There one of the best bets you can do if you pick them smartly.

A rule of thumb is, if a fighter wins a round on all three judges scorecards, he will usually win the handicap. But don’t forget about 10-8 rounds, I have had occasions where a fighter clearly won a round but lost the handicap.

This bet can only be found on 5 Dimes. If you like betting on the UFC I highly recommend you make an account there.

Decision Victories

You can bet on decision victories too. You can bet this a few ways the most popular one would be Fighter A wins by decision. Can be any decision it just needs to go to points.

There are more creative decision bets available too.

A fighter wins by “Unanimous Decision” when all three judges score him as the winner.

How Many Rounds Is Ufc Fight

A fighter wins by “Split-Decision” when two judges score him as the winner and one judge scores the other fighter as the winner.

A fighter wins by “Majority Decision” when two judges score him as the winner and one judge scores the fight a draw.

Live UFC Betting

Betting live on fights is a lot of fun and a good way to make money if you carefully select spots. Generally, there are two types of live betting sites. One is sites that let you bet in between rounds and the other is live betting throughout the fight. We have a full live betting guide here.

Prop Bets

Bettors can wager on a few prop bets in MMA including several very popular UFC prop bets. If you watch the UFC, you may know that they have awards for Performance of the Night and Fight of the Night. The odds on these bets are usually high.